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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Homestead Highlight: Kristi

My greatest inspiration in my own backyard farming adventure has been to
hear the experiences of others. I invite you to read along here as
Homesteaders share their adventures and experiences from their own
farms, backyards, and homes.

Want to be featured as a Homestead Highlight? I would love to hear
about your experience. For more information follow the link to the information page and share your own homestead here at the Backyard Farming Connection!

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Today I welcome Kristi to this space

Kristi, a homeschooling mom, lives in Riverside County, Southern
California with her husband and two of her three children. Though she has been
gardening for years, she and her family have not always sought to live closer to
the land. As the homesteading movement began to pick up speed, she and her
husband became more interested in vegetable gardening, planting fruit and nut
trees, and raising laying hens and rabbits–all on .18 of an acre. Eventually
Kristi’s family would love to move to a larger parcel of land, but for now,
Kristi is contented to learn all about homesteading, eeking out every bit of
knowledge she can and blogging about much of it at Let This Mind Be in You.
Find her on Facebook and Twitter .

How
long have you been backyard farming? What got you
started?

I've had a garden for many years, but didn't get
into backyard farming until the more recent past few years. I learned about
Urban Homesteading a few years ago and, being that I've always loved
the idea of living on a farm, I fell in love with the idea that I could
actually do some farming things on the property we already owned. I began
sharing this idea with my husband, who had been planting trees for years with
about as much success as I was having with gardening--very little. Despite the
little success we had been having, we decided to press on and began planning and
building more gardens, planting more trees and berries, and collecting rabbits
and chickens. As of now, we've got plenty of garden space, fruit and
almond trees, three rabbits, two laying hens, two cats, and two small
dogs.

What
does your backyard farm look like? Where is it?

Our family of four lives on .18 of an acre located in
the Inland Empire in Southern California. It is quite a small property in
comparison to many others, but we fit quite a bit on it and try to use
every nook and cranny of the property to benefit us or our animals.
Our backyard is quite functional with an area for entertaining, complete with a
fire pit and a 'beach' (no water, though), small basketball court with a hoop,
and a nice large front yard. As for the gardens, there are four, totalling about
300 square feet. We use three of the gardens for growing vegetables and one
for growing herbs and edible flowers that I like to use for herbal teas and
cooking. Our fruit trees are scattered in various areas of our yard and are as
follows: 2 apple, 1 cherry, 1 nectarine, 1 plum, 1 pear, 1 orange, 1 blood
orange, 1 lemon. We also have one almond tree, as well as berry patch and two
blueberry plants in containers. We have a covered area behind our home where we
house the chicken coop and the rabbit hutches. Having an awning over the
coop and hutches is an ideal set up, and open sides offers a nice cool
breeze on hot days. Where we live, it can get up over 100 degrees in the
summer, so we use a mister system and an outdoor fan/mister combo to keep
everyone cool back there. We also have a rabbit and chicken run where they can
come together for 'fellowship', which they really enjoy.

What
has been your biggest success and biggest mistake?

My biggest successes have really been the bounty of herbs
and vegetables that we are able to take in. While the volume
is definitely not what I know we can produce here, we have been quite
successful in growing various lettuces, spinach, garlic, beets, carrots, and
radish here, as well as herbs like catnip, thai basil, various mints, and edible
flowers. Most of our successes come from our winter gardening endeavors,
because the weather during fall, winter and spring is much more kind and
temperate than our summers. I also consider raising our two red sex
link laying hens, Lucy and Ethel, a success. This is the first time we've
ever raised chickens, and we are getting quite a good return of eggs and
friendship from them. Composting has also been a particular victory for me
because we had always bought all of our compost before, and it's quite
expensive. We no longer need to do that now that we know how to care for our two
large compost piles.

My biggest mistake over the years has been thinking
that if I put seeds in the ground, they will grow and produce all of the produce
our family needs. Sometimes this is true and other times it just is not. In the
past 10+ years, we have spent so much money on building materials for our
gardens, not to mention on plants, seeds, compost, garden soil, and everything
else it takes to start a garden....much of it wasted because of my lack of
knowledge of basic gardening skills like testing soil, the concept of pH, and
even feeding plants. I am happy to say that I am finally sinking my teeth into
learning how to garden and tend our plants and trees better this year, and we
are hopeful that we will see much of our work come to 'fruition'.

What
plans do you have for the future?

My
husband and I are currently enjoying caring for our trees, garden, and animals,
and want to learn as much as our small property can provide for us to
learn. Personally, I hope to learn to use all 300 square feet of garden
area and 10 fruit and nut trees to produce as much of our produce as
possible. Having lost my mother to cancer in 2011 compels me to try my
best to remove the danger of pesticides and genetically modified foods from our
bodies, and from our diets. In the more distant future, we are hoping to be able
to purchase a larger property where we will be able to raise our present
animals, as well as add more chickens, an angora rabbit, and a fiber and milk
goat. For now, we are content with what we have, and know we have much to learn
still here on our .18 of an acre.

7 comments:

This post is such an inspiration for so many gardeners, rural and urban alike! Blooming where you're planted, is good measure for success! Hoping you'll have the most successful growing season this year, Kristi! Thanks for sharing! Blessings from Bama!

Hi Kristi, I've been following your blog for a little while now and was happy to see you featured here, where I learned you are doing all your great things in the Inland Empire -my old stomping grounds!!We moved from a bedroom community (across the street from CBU in the Arlington area of Riverside) to a rural property in So. Colorado 7 years ago. I miss being able to grow ANYTHING, but man do we make some stark comparisons to these two totally different locales, lol. (For instance, I cried for 2 years every time I saw snow clouds coming over the mountain... but now we are in the swing of things and have a greenhouse to use...once we get it up. And how the sky here is constantly changing here with amazing new things, unlike the same watered-down blue with shades of overcast smog, there in the IE...)Still have roots in So. Cal, so I can't disparage it too much, lol, and there you are with your citrus and avocados... and the cutest bunnies!Thanks for sharing your journey of resilience, as always: INSPIRING!! Today I will be sharing your blog with my family there in the IE!